Simple Minds
Sons And Fascination

THE REVIEW

A hesitant and tentative bass line, the drums enter dry and metallic, from afar the delicate strokes of Charlie Burchill's electric guitar join in, finally everything is gathered and structured into melody by the soft sounds of Michael Mc Neil's keyboards, and Jim Kerr's singing starts off subdued and reflective (For just one moment in time / I hear the holy back beat / Events and casual affairs…). This is how "In Trance As Mission" begins, the opening track of "Sons And Fascination," the fourth chapter in the Simple Minds' history.

It's September 1981 when this album comes to light, marking significant changes for the Glasgow band: a new record company, Virgin, and a new producer, Steve Hillage. Musically, this translates into a shift towards vaguely popdance tones, after the Simple Minds' previous works had explored many of the trends popular between the late Seventies and early Eighties: from the glam and decadent rock of "Life In A Day," through the experiments straddling punk rock and electropop of "Real To Real Cacophony," to the elegant electronic hermeticism of "Empires And Dance." However, the first track of this new album, far from being a danceable piece, introduces the listener to a calm atmosphere of enchantment and wonder, with lyrics hinting at a journey taken in a state of dream, or rather trance. Thematically, even from this track, those references to America already begin that seem almost an obsession, though always just sketched, for the Minds of this period.

In the second track, "Sweat In Bullet", the rhythm section, introduced right at the start of the piece, is fully highlighted, driving and relentless. Jim Kerr's voice searches for the characteristic baritone colors that will be the unmistakable signature of every sung track by this group for a long time. In fact, sometimes Kerr will push his interpretations towards even excessive mannerisms. Only in the last album, "Black&White 050505" (but we had to wait until 2005!), did Kerr take the path of a more dry and essential singing style, relinquishing the typical drawn-out vocalisms, which had been his trademark certainly from "New Gold Dream" onward.

The third track, "70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall", also has a flamboyant pop outfit, again with the rhythm section prominently featured. The atmosphere darkens in the fourth track, "Boys From Brazil": Jim Kerr sings accompanied by the spasmodic beats of Brian McGee's drums and the counterpoint of Derek Forbes' bass. Keyboards and electric guitar are relegated here to a supporting role, passing essential and stylized behind the tribal rhythmic wall. The lyrics once again evoke real yet distant and incorporeal scenarios: for example, mentioning Brazilian boys drinking champagne on deserted beaches.

And here we are at "Love Song", undoubtedly the central track of the album, central at least in terms of its impact on the listener and the marketing that was dedicated to it (one of SM's very first videos was made from this piece). A pompous arrangement, with the synthesizer inserted in the intro, a powerful rhythm section with drums and percussion, keyboards again called to support the entire melodic structure and foreshadow movements that we will find in "New Gold Dream." The lyrics again speak of situations abstracted from reality. The title would suggest romantic themes, yet here we find reptiles, haircuts, broken fingers, someone telling lies. And again, like a mirage, the image of America reappears ("America is a boyfriend / Untouched by flesh of hand"). Certainly an impactful track, designed to capture the listener's attention, perhaps SM's first truly "commercial" piece. The next track, "This Earth That You Walk Upon" is definitely the beautiful song of this album. Again a slowdown, a new immersion in that calm with which the album began. The atmosphere created by the long note produced by the keyboards in the intro and the subtle percussion section brings once again to another world, perhaps oriental, where order reigns, the sense of speed, the vague anxiety of questions awaiting answers addressed to an interlocutor we neither see nor hear ("What's your name? / What's your Nation?"). The Earth we walk upon, protagonist of the track, is personified, she is the one who waves at your passing, turns around, then turns her back and walks away. Kerr's vocal interventions are brief and grouped into three moments. As often happens with SM tracks before New Gold Dream, a true concept of verses and refrains is missing here, which is often replaced by instrumental bridges. Here there are two: one of rare beauty and elegance played by Burchill's guitar, and the other, of great evocative power, done with the synth.

The title track is another remarkable piece of the record: once again the overwhelming force of Brian McGee's drums returns, the very prominent bass, and the keyboards that serve as a perfect counterpoint to Kerr's singing, who uses a more powerful voice than ever here. A very worthy closing of the fourth Simple Minds' opera is "Seeing Out The Angel", a calm and melancholic song, supported by the splendid keyboards of Mc Neil. It is one of those typically Simple Minds' ballads, with themes we will find in "Let It All Come Down" and even in "Dolphins" from "Black&White." "Sons And Fascination" is therefore a work to listen to and grasp in its entirety, made of a continuous alternation of primordial strength and disarming tenderness. A work that, in its remarkable artistic achievements produced through subtractive techniques, marks another step in the until then still ever-changing and therefore fascinating style of SM. And we realize we are less than a step away from what will probably remain the absolute masterpiece of this great rock band, "New Gold Dream 81-21-83-84."